Electric Cars & Magical Mileages

[Jay2TheRescue]

Electric Cars & Magical Mileages
Written by The Sarcasmist on October 2, 2009

It turns out that there may be a problem with the mileage claims that car companies are making. It started with the Chevrolet Volt, and its 230 miles-per-gallon range announcement, which was oddly enough followed by lots of ridicule. Of course the Japanese didn?t want to be left behind so Nissan announced the 367 miles-per-gallon efficiency of the Nissan Leaf.

Now, I understand that the math and logic used to calculate the Chevrolet Volt?s MPG rating can be ?adjusted? to show an impressive number such as 230mpg since it?s a hybrid automobile, but I really would like to know the details behind the MPG rating of the Nissan Leaf, since it?s a fully electric car. Now unless those crazy Japanese measure electricity in gallons, one might wonder how a miles-per-gallon rating can be applied to an electric vehicle.

Government to the rescue! The EPA and other government agencies (according to USA Today) are working on a new formula for the car manufacturers to play around with. Who knows, before we know it the miles-per-gallon ratings of all cars could shoot up into the thousands?one tank of gasoline per year! Excellent!

http://blog.sarcasmsociety.com/sarca...-mileages.html

[theholycow]

Now, I understand that the math and logic used to calculate the Chevrolet Volt?s MPG rating can be ?adjusted? to show an impressive number such as 230mpg since it?s a hybrid automobile, but I really would like to know the details behind the MPG rating of the Nissan Leaf, since it?s a fully electric car. Now unless those crazy Japanese measure electricity in gallons, one might wonder how a miles-per-gallon rating can be applied to an electric vehicle.

The Volt's 230mpg claim was for landline-charged mileage, like a full-electric car. It's 50mpg if you assume all electricity will be generated onboard by gasoline. I don't think the math is very hard to follow; the math they did was based on fuel cost. They used miles and dollars as the known variables and solved for X.

If gas-powered cars were EPA rated in miles per dollar instead of miles per gallon, this wouldn't be so hard for people to understand.

The ignorance in the comments at that article is discouraging.

[imzjustplayin]

Originally Posted by theholycow

The Volt's 230mpg claim was for landline-charged mileage, like a full-electric car. It's 50mpg if you assume all electricity will be generated onboard by gasoline. I don't think the math is very hard to follow; the math they did was based on fuel cost. They used miles and dollars as the known variables and solved for X.

If gas-powered cars were EPA rated in miles per dollar instead of miles per gallon, this wouldn't be so hard for people to understand.

The ignorance in the comments at that article is discouraging.

You don't want to do mile per dollar because while electricity may be cheaper, it won't be more clean than gasoline especially if it's coming from a coal power plant.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by *************

You don't want to do mile per dollar because while electricity may be cheaper, it won't be more clean than gasoline especially if it's coming from a coal power plant.

That would depend on your priorities.

If you're in it for environmentalism, then that difference is meaningful for you (though I suspect that a modern coal plant is pretty decently clean compared to a thousand badly maintained gas powered cars). In that case, you'd probably want miles-per-emissionsPPM or something.

If you're in it for the money, miles-per-dollar is what matters for fuel economy.

[dkjones96]

Originally Posted by *************

You don't want to do mile per dollar because while electricity may be cheaper, it won't be more clean than gasoline especially if it's coming from a coal power plant.

Also depends on the source. If you live in Las Vegas your power is pretty clean! Anywhere that gets nuclear power is pretty clean as well.

[R.I.D.E.]

You have to love it when you get the rest of the story.

Battery life expectancy.

Charges on your electric bill that are not the per killowatt rate.

The fact that govt will find a way to tax you on the electricity you use in your vehicle to compensate for the lost revenue from gasoline taxes.

Discussions are already under way for annual charges to cover lost gas tax revenues.

Considering battery life expectancy electric vehicles are estimated to cost 5to 10 cents a mile to operate.

Today I got 65 MPG on gas that cost $2.19 per gallon, about 3.2 cents a mile.

regards
gary

[trollbait]

{(though I suspect that a modern coal plant is pretty decently clean compared to a thousand badly maintained gas powered cars)}

To gas powered, likely older, cars, yeah. But how many of our coal plants are modern?

An electric car charged by current coal plants is dirtier than a real hybrid. With the adoption of EVs we need to move away from coal. Then again, we should move away from coal even without the EVs.